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Finished yesterday. Cross stitch for the frame and blackwork embroidery for the circular fills, on black 14-count Aida cloth.

While I feel like I've generally improved my project photography skills over the last few years, the contrast (or lack thereof) between DMC 211 and DMC B5200 in those smallest circles was A Trial.

Pattern here.

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Sixteen-Block Blues, part of a set of blackwork samplers I'm working on (others in this set include Red-Letter Day, Orange Blossom, and Easy Being Green). Sixteen squares of 20x20 stitches each. My own design.

Pattern here My Etsy shop

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Finished last night, a very stylized blackwork daisy on 14-ct black Aida.

Pattern here

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Finished these orchids last night, and I think they turned out pretty well. Blackwork embroidery on 14-count Aida.

Pattern here.

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It's smaller and in some ways simpler than a lot of my recent pieces, but this was a fun, pretty sampler to work on. Blackwork embroidery on 16-count Aida cloth.

Pattern here.

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I don't tend to use a lot of orange or yellow unless they're part of a colour wheel, but wanted something fire-inspired for this. It's another big one, about 43cm (17") across. Blackwork embroidery on 14-count Aida cloth.

Pattern here.

[loosethreadstitchery]

It's looking beautiful!

I can’t believe I’m making something so pretty ☀️

Pattern by @loosethreadstitchery

[loosethreadstitchery]

You have so many posts I couldnt hope to comment on them all, but your work is a-maz-ing. Words cannot express how much I adore your art, shown through your magnificent colors and skill <3

Do you have any tips for those starting this kind of stitchwork? I imagine the backs get quite messy XD

First, thank you so much - that's super kind of you!

I don't know how much stitching you've done before now, but the very basics of cross stitch and blackwork are here and here. If you already know the basics,

For the kind of blackwork I do most, using repeating motifs to fill in sections of a larger image, I find that the biggest problem is getting lost in the chart and forgetting which repetition of the fill motif I'm on. This is especially tricky when there are slight variations in the motif, as happens when I'm shading or making a colour gradient. Have some way to mark off each repetition of the motif as you complete it. I do this by annotating in my laptop's .pdf reader; some people print out the pattern and just use a highlighter. There is some software like Pattern Keeper or Cross Stitch Saga that some stitchers like, but the file formats they use aren't always available (I've also been told that Pattern Keeper isn't great with backstitch, which would make it kind of useless for blackwork, but I've never used either program, so someone else can weigh in there).

I work on black Aida a lot - some people hate working on black because it's harder to see the holes in the cloth, but I love the way it makes coloured blackwork pop. Your best friend here is lighting - good light on your work, and also a bit of backlighting. You don't want the backlight to be so strong that the holes turn into blinding little pinpricks, but you want to be able to see the light through them. Some people will put a phone or tablet behind their work with the screen on low; I find that having something white behind it is enough - a white pillow on my lap, or the white walls of my apartment.

My backs are a mess, yeah. For most of my patterns, it's geometrically impossible to do the reversible blackwork thing, and most of the time I'm making something whose back won't be visible, so it's a place to hide my stitchy sins. Gradients in particular have areas where stitches of one colour are relatively far apart, so there are big jumps on the back.

Samplers made up of small motifs in separate squares are a good way to get used to following blackwork charts without getting tangled up in repeating fill patterns.

If you're looking for a small project to give blackwork a try, I've got a couple of little free patterns here and here that are on the simpler side, and one here that's a good way to try a gradient.

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My two favourite pieces to date. I've posted both of these separately, but they were designed to be a set and they look good side by side, so here they are together.

Blackwork embroidery on 14-count black Aida. Each of these is just over 43cm (17") across.

Patterns here.

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Hot off the hoop, some flowers and oak leaves in blackwork.

Pattern here My Etsy shop

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Going through some older photos. A rainbow ring of rings.

Pattern here My Etsy shop

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One of my earliest designs, this is a semi-subtle tribute to The Chronicles of Narnia. Each section has a lamp-post, a sword and shield, a bow and arrow, an apple, four thrones, and a Dawn Treader-style ship.

Pattern here.

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Finished earlier today. I was going for a bit of a stained glass effect, and it more or less worked. Cross-stitched outline with coloured blackwork fills.

Pattern here.

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This is an older sampler, but I still like a lot of the motifs I used for it.

Pattern here

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Looking good - happy stitching!

Lavender's Blue is an older piece. It's still a favourite of mine, partly because the colours remind me of a pair of quilts my sister and I had on our beds as kids.

Pattern here My Etsy shop

[loosethreadstitchery]

I've been blending colours in blackwork a lot lately; it's not especially complicated, but you can get some cool effects out of it. A few people here and on IG have asked for a smaller pattern they can use to try it out, so here's a pair of hearts. Same fill motif for both, but one gradient runs horizontally, while the second is diagonal.

Back-stitch for the fill; stem-stitch for the outline.

Patterns for both are in this google drive.

[loosethreadstitchery]

I'd like to try some of your gradient patterns but they look so intimidating! Do you know any smaller and easier gradients that would be good to practice on?

Hi Anon!

With blackwork gradients, the stitches themselves aren't hard (the same backstitch and Holbein/double running stitch as all blackwork); the trouble is not getting lost in the chart. Having some way to mark off each repetition of the fill motif as I complete it is essential for me.

Off the top of my head, I don't know of any smaller blackwork patterns that use a gradient between contrasting colours, but I'll see what I can do about making one.